


Waning

by pikachuch1mchar



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Angst, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Issues with Eating, Not as angsty as the title makes it seem but its gonna get angsty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2018-12-10 13:42:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11692833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pikachuch1mchar/pseuds/pikachuch1mchar
Summary: Akira begins to notice some habits of Mishima's.Akira begins to worry about Mishima.Akira wants to help.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Uuuuuuuh I think I talked about this concept on twitter like a month or two ago and now Im writing it out. Sorry this first chapter is so short.
> 
> Also, constructive criticism is very appreciated! Writing isnt my strong suit but Id like to get better at it and make my fics more enjoyable to read.
> 
> Suggestions too! Ive thought out how this story will go, but Id love to hear suggestions and thoughts to expand it!

Yuki Mishima is small. There's no doubt about that. So short and scrawny that even the smallest version of the boys uniform was baggy on him. And that would be fine. That would be completely fine if Akira hadn't seen the boy skip lunch one too many times. 

Akira didn't think too much of it at first. He just chalked it up to Mishima still being (semi?)nervous, or busy with the new Phansite. But months had passed by now, and with the joining of Yusuke, an artist whose budgeting left out food all too often, and Makoto, who was almost as strict about health habits for the thieves as Morgana, it was hard not to notice Mishima's habits. A buzz of concern in the back of his mind.

He was worried that maybe Mishima's work for them made him forget to. Or that maybe he was like Yusuke and didn't have anything in the house? 

Every day he saw Mishima stay put and diligently tap at his phone while other kids unpacked their lunches or filed out to the school store was another day Akira worried for him. He couldn't stand it. He felt he had to do something.

“Mishima,” Akira had approached him one day, tapping on his shoulder. Akira had… underestimated how quiet he was with his approach though, as a startled Mishima choked on his own spit.

“Oh sh- sorry Mishima,” Akira apologized, patting Mishima's back in attempt to help as Mishima coughed out an ‘it's fine!’

“Geez, you really startled me Kurusu,” Mishima said once his coughing fit died down. “I guess that's what makes you so good at, well, what you do.” He was smiling now.

“I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about,” Akira joked. Now Mishima was smiling wider.

“So, anyways,” Mishima veered the conversation back onto a topic he knew nothing about. “You usually don't come visit during lunch. Do you need anything?”

Akira took a split second to compose himself before putting his plan into action. “Ah, no, not really, I just noticed you haven't gotten lunch yet.” He smiled kindly for more effect.

“Its still pretty early in lunch,” Mishima reasoned. It had been 15 minutes since it started. Akira resisted calling bullshit though.

“Well, we should still get something sooner, right?”

“We?”

“I haven't gotten anything either, so we should go together,” Akira said matter-of-factly.

“I think I’ll pass on that,” Mishima said hesitantly, tugging on his hair a bit. “I mean, there's gonna be a big line outside of the shop at this time, right?” Well, that sure caught Akira off guard.

“I- Aren't you hungry?”

“I’ll just go on my own later.”

“All the good stuff might be gone!”

“I can deal with that, honestly-”

“Do you want me to pick up something for you?” Akira realized how insistent he was starting to be after a sigh from Mishima.

“Whats gotten into you today? I can go down and get something myself just fine.” Akira paused for a moment. His plan to simply convince Mishima to go down and get lunch was an obvious bust. Maybe there wasn't even a problem and it was just Mishima losing track of time, maybe he helped by reminding him. Either way, Akira decided he should drop it.

“I guess I'm just a bit tired, sorry.” Akira said, trying to play his pushiness off. Then, as spontaneously as he decided to talk to Mishima, he walked off. He was sure Mishima would ask questions, and Akira didn't want to make the situation any stranger.

When lunch ended though, Akira noticed that Mishima hadn't, in fact gone down on his own. He stayed glued to his seat, even when the usual management Mishima did at lunch slowed from tapping to just scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling.

 _There's still a problem._ Akira thought to himself, stuffing a wrapper into his bag.

_Definitely still a problem._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to say, for clarification, I thought it'd be cute if Akira rejecting the fact that hes a Phantom Thief is more of an in-joke for them.
> 
> So, uh, my plans for the next chapter are hopefully gonna be a lot longer than this one. See yall then!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira is absolutely getting to the bottom of this and it definitely doesn't turn out bad at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo finally got off my ass and updated anyways shits starting to get real. This was gonna be longer but it's one in the fucking am so who's gonna stop me from putting the other half as the next chapter
> 
> Also excuse the shift in writing to be crappier during the latter part of the chapter half of this was written write after I uploaded the first and the other was just now after a small breakdown to help me calm down so yeah not good ahead choo choo motherfuckers

It became a routine. Everyday at lunch, Akira would approach Mishimas desk and ask him to go down to the school store with him, and every day Mishima would reject. 

“Weird. Doesn't that guy usually jump to hang out with you?” Morgana commented lazily after witnessing Akira fail yet again, to which he groaned.

“Usually.” Akira paused for a bit, staring at his lap with laser focus. “...Do you think he's ignoring me?” He wondered. 

“That guy? What would you even do to get him to ignore you?” Morgana laughed. Akira sighed. “Come on, don't overthink it. He's probably just busy or something.”

But Akira did overthink it. Late into the night, even after Morgana sent him to bed and curled up himself, Akira couldn't help but keep wondering. Was it his persistence the first time? Had he said something insensitive to him? He was never too good at noticing when something rubbed someone wrong. He looked back on it, worrying himself until his body gave in to sleep.

So, excuse him if he wasn't as smooth as he usually was with the daily rejection.

“I never see you get lunch though. Don't you get hungry?” He blurted out. There was a pause long enough to make Akira believe he had imagined saying that.

“Well, uh, you know,” Mishima rested his head in his hand, ‘subtly’ tugging at his hair. “I just eat at home.”

Akira could feel something off, but nodded anyways and went back to his desk. It wasnt until he sat down that his slow brain caught up. Mishima was lying. But why? He needed somewhere to think about this so he didnt end up sleepless again…

“Hey, Akira, class is about to start again. Are you worried about that kid again?” Morgana mewled. Akira’s stare back at the cat was laserlike with decisiveness.

“We’re going to Mementos today.”

“Oh, ok- wait, hey! That didn't answer my question at all!”

~

Nothing like fighting supernatural beasts to clear the mind, or at least, that was how Akira thought of it. Part of him felt bad for using the Metaverse for his own escapism, but only a part. He could rationalize it easily anyways.

Morgana felt warm laying beside him, he absentmindedly pet him. He was a bit bothered that he couldn't find Mishima’s shadow, but he supposed asking it about something too personal would be breaching trust.

Maybe he was just being paranoid about Mishima after all. But one more try couldn't hurt, just to put his mind at ease.

It would turn out ok. He was sure. He was….

Akira fell asleep.

\--

“Mishima, hey!” Akira greeted the next day afterschool.

“Hi Kurusu, what do you need?” Mishima answered cheerfully.

“Nothing, nothing, don't worry, I just wanted to know if you'd like to hang out?”

“Oh! Of course! Just let me pack up,” Mishima smiled and practically shoveled his school supplies in his bag. “Ok! Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” Akira said, leading Mishima to the train station.

Akira felt lucky that he was charming enough to have Mishima follow him even with how vague he was being with his questions. Or maybe it was just a case of Mishima being dedicated. Either way Mishima trailed right behind Akira, all the way to their destination.

The diner.

“Are you sure you just wanted to hang out? We usually talk about business here,” Mishima joked.

“I'm sure, I'm sure, I just thought that, yknow,” Akira paused for a millisecond. If he was going to press this, it was going to be here. “Since you eat afterschool it would be kind of cruel to leave you hungry just so we could talk,” 

Mishima shrunk almost visibly.

“O-oh, right, yeah.” He said, just short of an awkward ‘of course’. Akira just had to press a little harder and he would get the truth. He could fix whatever was going on. 

They slid into a booth, Akira watched Mishima skim the menu nervously as subtly as he could.

“Don't worry about price,” Akira said, breaking a strange silence that had settled. “I've got a lot of money from part time jobs,”

And some dirty mementos money, he added mentally. He hoped the diner didn't mind that all of the currency he had was covered in shadow goop. At least they hadn't brought it up or anything before.

“Ah, ok.” Mishima said awkwardly. “Where do you work, Kurusu?”

“Well, have you ever walked into a store?”

“Yeah?”

“Chances are I probably work there,” 

“Man, how busy are you?” Mishima said, more admiration than usual on his voice. They had small talk like that until the waiter came. Akira ordered one of the steaks and Mishima…

Mishima said he was just fine with water.

“Come on, you did say you ate afterschool, didn't you?” Akira said.

“Yeah, I guess I did,” Mishima said. It was almost as awkward as before.

This time there was no small talk as Akira waited for the food and Mishima chewed on the straw in his glass. Akira tried, of course, but Mishima wasn't having it. He looked like he was thinking.

The waiter finally came back and set the plate down. Akira waited for the waiter to leave and then pushed the plate to the middle.

“Mishima,”

“Mm?”

“You have to be hungry if you normally eat now. I already said I was paying, so you don't have to worry about that.” Akira said.

“No, that's ok,” Mishima said, pushing the plate back towards Akira a little bit.

“No, no come on! I mean, if you don't like the food here, that's fine, we can go somewhere else-”

“Kurusu-”

Akira felt like he knew where this would go.

“But I've never seen you try it, it's pretty good if that's the problem,”

“Kurusu lis-”

He wouldn't back down. If he pushed far enough, Mishima would just spill whatever he was keeping inside and Akira could comfort him.

“And I mean, you can still order something else. Wouldn't want you to go hungry, ri-”

“Kurusu, stop!” Mishima said, slamming his hands on the table in exasperation. Akira feigned a shocked look. He looked for a tremble in Mishima. For a sad expression with watery eyes that meant he was about to tell him everything.

“I lied, ok? Now can you just stop?” But Mishimas tone was cold. Almost angry. No teary eyes. No sad resignation. Just frustration and anger.

“Stop?” It was the only thing Akira could get out.

“This!” Mishima gestured to the steak in the middle of the table. “Stop worrying about me eating!”

“Mishima, I was just worried, and you weren't giving me direct answers…” 

“Because I didn't want to, Kurusu.” He paused for a moment. “Have you just been talking to me lately for this?”

Akira stayed silent. Analyzing himself in the past couple of weeks, that did seem to be the case… but he was worried!

Mishima waited for a few seconds, but Akira was still silent. He huffed out a sigh and grabbed his bag.

“Just don't worry about it Kurusu.” He didn't make eye contact as he slid out of the booth, grimacing when his stomach audibly gurgled when he stood. “I don't want to, so you can stop.”

Mishima walked out briskly, free hand balled into a fist. Akira just stared on in shock. He didn't plan for it to go that way at all, and he didn't know what hurt worse; the fact that he had made Yuki Mishima, one of the most loyal people to him mad, or the fact that Mishima wasn't eating.


End file.
